Here's the story... of America's grooviest TV sitcom family! It's Season Three
of the wildly popular comedy series, which means there's a whole new season
of hilarious adventures upstairs and down in the Brady home. Marcia's on the
trail of Davy Jones of The Monkees; Jan is weary of the constant comparisons
to her older sibling ("Marcia, Marcia, Marcia!"); and Cindy just wants a boy
to call her own. Across the hallway, Greg's new car is less than cool;
Peter channels Humphrey Bogart (among others) while undergoing an image makeover;
and little Bobby hates being just that - "little" - until he saves the day!
From Mike and Carol's journey with the kids in the Grand Canyon to Alice's
look-alike cousin who brusquely takes "command" of the Brady household, here
are all 23 episode of The Complete Third Season of The Brady Bunch. It's
enough to make you break out in song... that is, unless your voice is cracking!

Memorable Episodes / Notable Guest Stars:

The vacation episodes were always popular, and the third season opened with
a trip to the Grand Canyon. The three-part vacation trip to the Grand Canyon
starts ominously when they set up camp in an old deserted mining town in
"Ghost Town, U.S.A.." After their harrowing encounter with
Zaccariah T. Brown, the Bradys finally make it to the Grand Canyon - only to discover
that, as night falls, Cindy and Bobby are missing in "Grand Canyon or Bust." Cindy and Bobby, lost in the wilds of the Grand Canyon,
are befriended by Jimmy, a Native American boy in "The Brady Braves."
At school, Greg's arch-rival, Warren Mulaney, has edged him out
of a first-string spot on the basketball team, then beats
him in the campaign race for student body president in "My Sister, Benedict Arnold."
Jan insists that she doesn't need glasses... until she crashes her bike
into the family portrait that Mike has hidden in the garage as a surprise
for Carol on their anniversary in "The Not-So-Rose-Colored Glasses."
Pop music stardom beckons when Greg writes a groovy song - "We Can Make The
World A Whole Lot Brighter" - and the Brady kids decide to professionally
record it at a local studio in "Dough Re Mi."

Some well-known actors made appearances in season three. Jim Backus guest stars as Zaccariah T.
Brown in the three-part Grand Canyon episodes. Paul Winchell appears as Skip Farnum in "And Now, A Word From Our Sponsor."
Davy Jones appears as himself and Marcia Wallace plays Mrs. Robbins in
"Getting Davy Jones." Imogene Coca plays Aunt Jenny in "Jan's Aunt Jenny." Hope
Sherwood, daughter of Sherwood Schwartz, guest starred as Rachel in "The Big Bet."
Jackie Coogan returns to the show and appears as Harry Duggan in "The Fender Benders."

Packaging:

The packaging remains similar to the first two season releases. It features
the famous Brady Bunch checkerboard grid with a hologram type cover. When
you turn it from side to side and you are in good light, you can see the cast's
faces move in different directions as you saw on the show's opening credits.
If you look at the cover, you'll notice that it is the same photo they used
on the season 2 set. Some of the facial expressions and directions they are looking at
are a bit different though. An interesting bit of trivia: they used the same
opening credits for seasons 2 and 3. The theme song was updated for the third
season though. The overall color scheme of this set is lime green and pink.
On the back of the box, they give some details of the set and there is a
season 3 cast photo on the right. The 23 episodes of the set are broken
down by disc. Two slimcases slide out from the right of the box. Slimcase #1 holds
discs 1 & 2 and has a lime green cover with 4 photos of Carol/Jan, Alice, Bobby,
and Greg/Peter. Slimcase #2 holds discs 3 & 4 and has a pink cover with 4 photos
of Cindy, Marcia, Greg/Peter/Jan, and Mike. There are some detailed summaries
on the back of the cases that list the original airdates as well.

Two single-sided discs can be found in each case. I would have preferred if they used some kind
of overlapping system instead of having the discs on two different holders on opposite
sides of the case. They
seem to pop out of their cases too easily, and they can be easily scratched - especially
if you are receiving this set by mail. Inside of slimcase #1, there is a photo
of Jan, Marcia, and Cindy from the Grand Canyon episodes with a pink tint as
well as some classic quotes from the show. Slimcase #2 features a publicity still
of Greg, Peter, and Bobby from the Grand Canyon episodes with a lime green tint
with a couple of classic quotes. The discs are lime green or pink in color
and feature various photos of the cast. Disc 1 is green and has a photo
of Carol and Mike with episodes 50-55. Disc 2 pictures is green and pictures
Greg and Marcia with episodes 56-61. Disc 3 is pink and shows a picture
of Jan and Peter with episodes 62-67. Disc 4 is pink and has a shot
of Bobby and the youngest one in curls (Cindy) with episodes 68-72.

Menu Design and Navigation:

The menus have a familiar look as the first two season sets. They feature
various photos and different pastel-colored backgrounds on each disc. Disc
1 has a cast photo (that is also pictured on the back of the main box). Disc 2
has a still photo from the Grand Canyon episodes of Jan, Marcia, and Cindy. Disc
3 has another still photo from the Grand Canyon episodes of Greg, Peter, and Bobby.
Alice is not left out as she is featured on the menu on disc 4. The episode titles
are listed vertically in two rows. All discs have a Play All button or you can play
the episodes individually. There is a Previews option on the first disc. There are
well-placed chapter stops within the episodes, but there are no separate menus
for scene selections. It would have been nice to hear the theme song or some of the
great music cues by Frank DeVol on the menus.

Video and Audio Quality:

There is no noticeable improvement in the video quality of the episodes from the other
two releases. Some episodes look great with little or no video problems. Once again,
it seems like Paramount has used a variety of prints to get the complete, unedited
episodes. Some scenes have some dirt and debris, and the color is a bit faded
and dull. The scenes with lower quality seem to be the ones that are cut in
syndication and re-inserted here on the set. The episodes are well spread out over
4 discs with no more than 6 episodes per disc, so there are no compression problems.
All of the episodes appear to be unedited, running from 25-26 minutes in length. It's
amazing that there are 3-4 minutes cut of the episodes when they are shown in syndication.
There are no original bumpers included on the set. On the previous 2 releases,
they had "The Brady Bunch - In Color" still image at the start of the episodes.
I'm not sure if they dropped them when season 3 originally aired. There are
no commercial break bumpers saying "The Brady Bunch will return in a moment."
Those would have been fun to see. For the closing logo enthusiasts, there is the red, white, and blue closing Paramount logo that
was used at the time. The episodes are presented in their original
airdate order. It's strange to see that their season ended so early in March 1972. There
were very few repeat airings it seems compared to today's network schedules.

The audio is a standard Digital 2.0 Mono track. The audio is at a good level and
there are no noticeable problems. Listen for the updated season 3 theme song
on this set. Closed captioning is available on all of the episodes.

Season 1 had a nice amount of special features, and I think fans were hoping
to have them on all seasons. No special features were included on season 2.
Unfortunately, they've continued that trend on this set. According to
Barry Williams Official Website, he did episode commentaries with
Susan Olsen and Christopher Knight for seasons 1-3. The complete, unedited episodes
are probably the most important thing to people. Special features add to the overall
enjoyment and value of the set. It seems unlikely that they would come out with
"Special Editions" in the future.

There are abour 3 minutes worth of previews of Paramount DVD releases on
the first disc. They promote MacGyver Seasons 1-3, Charmed Seasons 1-3, and the Airplane
"Don't Call Me Shirley" Edition. Airplane is definitely one of my favorite movie comedies
of the 80's. I look forward to picking up this special edition.

Final Comments:

It's nice to see The Brady Bunch released at such a fast rate by Paramount. I hope
they haven't taken out any special features because of the speed they've come out
though. I don't think many people buy dvd sets just for the extras, but they
are always fun to watch. Season 4 also starts with a vacation as the Bradys
travel to Hawaii. Look for season 4 to be released in less than two months on
November 1st!